C.H.O.P.S. – Helicopter Game Review

The game is dicedly old school in appearance, with plenty of retro visual elements that are a delight to see. It is rendered in 2D in — portrait orientation — with deliberately muted colors and a stilted animations. The visual representation works quite well with the cheery music, which is able to evoke a sense of action. Altogether, the looks and sounds frame the gameplay in an expectant manner, and create a fun experience off the bat.

With regards to gameplay, this is a chopper shooter with one simple overriding mission: keep flying as long as possible. Along that note, one controls the protagonist helicopter, which flies from left to right of the screen. Controlling the craft is a matter of tapping the screen to keep it “afloat” in a manner of speaking, kind of like a gust of strong wind; one can avoid obstacles this way. Tapping on the screen allows the craft to fly forward perpetually, so once one has the tapping motion down, one can fashion a somewhat even-keeled flight pattern amidst the bobbing.

Emanating from the right side, however, are several airborne vehicles that are, of course, looking to stop the run, and are willing to do whatever possible to end it. Thankfully, the player’s machine is equipped with weaponry, albeit relatively rudimentary, and this is a great tool when it comes to dispatching the enemy craft. It auto-shoots, so one has to figure out out how control the craft, avoid return fire, avoid crashing into enemy aircraft, and avoid the girders that come out of the ceiling and floor.

Each time one takes a go, one looks to gather as much coin and destroy craft for XP, each time one levels up, there is a new bonus tier one enters. The longer a run goes, the harder it gets, with zipper sequences that demand faster reflexes. There is a life are, and when that is depleted, the run ends.

Secondarily, there are a collectibles one should look to pick up; gold coins line up the airways, and it is very beneficial to pick up as much as possible. One has to way the dangers inherent, as going out of one’s way can be make flying harder. Blasting the enemy craft usually pops out collectible gold as well, but also drops boosts and special diamonds. The gold can be used improve one’s craft and weapons, and the diamonds can be used to do the same as well as to get run continues. Improving one’s ship is definitely important, as better ships generally have better survival attributes.

The game gets high marks for being especially easy to play across generations, and for being fairly self-contained. One can pay to kill ads to, so the experience is quite what one makes of it.